August 11, 2023 — After more than a quarter century of recording, Mountain Home Music Company’s Chris Jones will break new ground for himself and his band, theNight Drivers, when they release their first EP, Pages in Your Hand, now available for pre-save/add/order ahead of its October 6 release.
Yet though the project weighs in at 6 tracks, it’s arguably the most diverse to date, with two of them having already topped the charts, two covers — their first after the all-original song list on their previous release, Make Each Second Last — and one featuring the first lead vocal from a musician not named Jones.
In other respects, though, Pages in Your Hand is a quintessential Chris Jones & the Night Drivers set, full of music for which the best one-word description might be “elegant.” Jones, bassist Marshall Wilborn, mandolin player Mark Stoffel and multi-instrumentalist Grace van’t Hof know how to play in a way that enhances, without overshadowing, the essence of each song, and so do their guests: labelmate Carley Arrowood (fiddle), resophonic guitarist Billy Cardine and legendary drummer Tony Creasman. The same is true of the singing, with Jones’ warm, resonant baritone setting the pace with expressive precision while the Night Drivers’ deliver a smooth blend of empathetic harmonies.
Today, the band is giving listeners a taste of what’s to come with the release of the title track, a characteristically thoughtful mid-tempo meditation on the value of old-fashioned correspondence that’s full of distinctively elegant touches.
Opening with a delicate signature figure from Stoffel, “Pages In Your Hand” loses no time in getting right to its point:
Now that I’ve put my pen to paper
I guess I don’t have that much to say
But you should know that I’ve been thinking of you
So I’ll go and send it on its way
The chorus completes the thought, as Jones, Stoffel and van’t Hof (octave tenor guitar) combine to serve up an eminently singable melody — another typical feature of a Jones original — over a gently wandering line from Wilborn:
You know that I’m not one for lengthy phrases
You’ve known me long enough to understand
But I’ll smile, cause it still brings me pleasure
To know you hold these pages in your hand
“I’m somebody who still writes letters,” notes Jones, ”and in fact that was something that really helped my state of mind during the pandemic. My steadiest pen pal during that time was my sister Manya, and I was really grateful for how it brought us closer, and I was thinking that whether the content of the letter was lengthy and full of detail or just a few brief thoughts, I loved knowing that she was physically holding those pages in her hand after it was delivered. Email and text can’t do that. I co-wrote the song with Thomm Jutz, who is a letter-writer himself and who has great appreciation for songs about real life.”
With steady, empathetic support from Creasman and soulful fiddle from Arrowood, who splits the solo passage with Stoffel, “Pages In Your Hand” shows an artist as comfortable with studio guests as he is with his own quartet — and one who can be counted on to range beyond the most well-worn themes of bluegrass songs.
The song is streaming in Dolby Atmos spatial audio on Apple Music, TIDAL andAmazon Music. Dolby Atmos is a sound experience you can feel all around you. Familiar from its “surround sound” application in thousands of movie theaters” Dolby Atmos reveals “depth, clarity and details like never before.”
Listen to “Pages In Your Hand” HERE.
About Chris Jones & The Night Drivers
Whether it’s in the studio or on stage, Chris Jones & The Night Drivers are making some of the most distinctively elegant yet driving music to be heard anywhere today, and they’re delivering it with a unique blend of dry wit, emotional authenticity and broad humor that’s won the loyalty of a growing number of fans across the country, from MerleFest in North Carolina to California’s Huck Finn Jubilee, and around the world.
Steve Martin referred to the Night Drivers as “. . . some of the best players in bluegrass! Chris Jones’ voice is there with the great masters.” Americana artist Jim Lauderdale said of Chris, “He continues to have one of the most distinctive and best voices in music, period.”
The band — which is Mark Stoffel on mandolin, Grace van’t Hof on banjo and ukelele and Marshall Wilborn on bass — is led by Chris’ soulful lead-singing, songwriting, and solid rhythm and lead guitar. Chris boasts extensive performance credits as a sideman with artists like Lynn Morris, Vassar Clements, Special Consensus, Dave Evans, Earl Scruggs, and the acclaimed Irish band The Chieftains.
Altogether, members of Chris Jones & The Night Drivers have won more than a dozen IBMA awards and have recorded more than ten #1 songs. The Night Drivers also bring name recognition in related fields, as bluegrass fans are well-familiar with Jones for his award-winning work as a SiriusXM DJ, on both Bluegrass Junction and Willie’s Roadhouse.